


The Rules

by boxoftheskyking



Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Gen, monologues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-18 23:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxoftheskyking/pseuds/boxoftheskyking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If you have to, you save yourself."</p>
<p>Thomas waits, but Minho doesn’t elaborate.</p>
<p>"What do you mean?" </p>
<p>"If I get stuck, get stung, get stuck behind, if I fall and you have to leave me, you do that. You get out. You do not come back for me. You don’t wait for me. You leave, you get out, and you save yourself. You got that?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rules

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from @agentotter

"Okay. Next rule is probably the most important."

Thomas shakes out his shoulders, ready for another demonstration. “Okay. Go.”

"If you have to, you save yourself."

Thomas waits, but Minho doesn’t elaborate.

"What do you mean?" 

"If I get stuck, get stung, get stuck behind, if I fall and you have to leave me, you do that. You get out. That night with Alby, that was an exception because it’s Alby and it was - That night’s an exception for a lot of things. But this is me telling you now, you do not come back for me. You don’t wait for me. You leave, you get out, and you save yourself. You got that?"

Thomas blinks at him. “You mean just - just leave?”

"I mean, if it’s early in the day and you can get me back, yeah, of course, but if it comes down to you getting out or neither of us, you go. You got that?"

"Yeah, sure."

Minho stares at him a long moment. “Yeah, sure. You haven’t heard a word I just –”

“‘Course I did, I’m standing right here –!”

"No, no, no, you didn’t. ‘Yeah, sure,’ he says. You don’t believe me. Listen."

"I’m  _listeni–_ ”

"No, you’re not! I can see it in your face, you’ve got that noble face on. ‘Yeah, sure,’ and then first sign of trouble we’re both Griever food, because you don’t have the balls to leave me behind. Listen."

"I don’t believe you’d do it. You wouldn’t leave anybody. You wouldn’t leave me."

"I left Alby! I already left you once already!"

"That’s different, you thought we were dead anyway. You thought it was a matter of time."

"No, no, no, you’re not listening to me. Listen."

Thomas leans back against the wall, crosses his arms, challenging. Minho looks at him a moment, then crosses to the shady side of the path and sits down.

"Story time. Listen. First Runner I ran with was called Omar. Best we ever had. He and I started the whole –" he waves his hand at the Maze around them "–thing. He and I made it official, you know, came up with the strategy.

"He was a funny guy. Wrote poems. Little poems, mostly funny ones, calling people names, you know, but it rhymed. And he loved Ben. You didn’t really ever know Ben, did you?"

Thomas came and sat beside him. “Only that time he tried to kill me and then, you know.”

“‘S a shame. Ben came up the month before me. You kinda stick with the guys who were Greenies  right before you and right after you. Like you and Chuck. He wasn’t a Runner, then, he was a Farmer and he was good at it. He never really wanted to be a Runner, not ‘til later. But he and Omar were like the first two to really pair up, you know, they were on the older side. Others had obviously– you know, but they were the first who were like a unit. Ben-and-Omar, you know. So the three of us were the best friends. Me and Omar running during the day, the three of us walking around every night like we owned the Glade. Like we owned the Maze. 

"We had this rule too. Established it the first time we lost someone to a Griever. People used to be able to go out into the Maze as long as they were back by sundown, but we lost this kid Ralph – he was maybe twelve. Maybe. Super tiny, he was like everybody’s little brother. I swear Alby and Newt were going to adopt him, they were like his parents or something. Anyway, so we lost Ralph and then we all met up and we said no one should leave the Glade except the Runners, and then the Runners all said – and this was me and Omar and Newt and Leo, at the time –"

"Newt was a Runner?" Thomas asked.

"That’s a whole other – Never mind that. Anyway, the Runners all got together and we said we should have rules, we couldn’t have any heroes, any dying for people, you know. No sacrifices.

"See, Gladers need each other. That’s how this works – we all have each other. And so you owe it to the rest of them to survive. So do I; we both do. So if there’s anything you can do to survive, to get back to them, to keep on doing your part, then you do it.

"Omar – One night it was getting late, and we were just starting to get into the outer sections, just barely finding out they were there, and we were sprinting for the Glade, ‘cause it was so late, and Omar just caught this stone wrong on his foot and he went down. Hit his head. I don’t know if he died then, when he hit is head, ‘cause I just grabbed him and I tried to pick him up, drag him, but I heard the walls closing and I just had to – I think he was already dead. That happens if you hit your head wrong. But I had to leave him or I’d be dead too. And the next morning he was gone.

"Ben started running after that, I think he wanted something like revenge. Or some connection. Or something. But he never really talked to me after that. I mean, he  _talked,_  but we never – And I don’t blame him.

"But it was what I had to do. After the first time it gets a little easier."

Thomas stares at him. Minho looks down at his hands, breathing like he’s been running.

"I don’t believe that."

Minho smiles down at his hands, but it’s painful. “Which part.”

"I saw you. With Alby. You stayed behind with him. You were going to die with him."

"That’s Alby. That’s different. Everything you do is for the good of the Glade. The Gladers have each other. That’s law. That’s scripture. We have each other. We owe ourselves to each other."

"But –"

"But Alby. Alby’s different. Alby and Newt. The Gladers need us, but they need Alby and Newt more. Don’t tell me you don’t agree."

Thomas is silent for a long moment. “I only just got here,” he says quietly.

"Still."

"Yeah."

Minho unties and tightens the laces on his boots. They are quiet for a long time.

"I don’t know if I could do it," Thomas says.

"What?"

"Leave you, I mean."

Minho nods. “It’s not easy. Not the first time. But if you try–”

"I don’t know if I want to."

Minho grabs his hand in something like a shake but harder, closer. “Look at me, Thomas. This is me, right mind, telling you to leave me. No matter what I say when it happens, no matter how it happens, you gotta leave me.”

"I don’t know if I –"

"Then try. Promise me you’ll try."

Thomas stares at him, doesn’t wince at the tightness of his grasp.

"Yeah. I’ll try."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. Hey."

"What?" Minho stand up, brushes off his legs.

"I’m sorry about Ben. What happened to him. I’m sorry. It was because of me."

Minho stares at him then, inexplicably, laughs.

"Shit. If you fell off a cliff, you'd apologize to the ground, wouldn't you?"

"What?"

"Get moving, Greenie. Miles to go before sundown."

Minho takes off, fast, and Thomas stutters on his feet a moment. He finds his rhythm quickly, though, the sound of their feet on the ground like an easy conversation.


End file.
